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The resident Tomas Anez Dos Santos toiled in a tiny open space deep in the of Peru rainforest when he heard movements coming closer through the lush forest.

He became aware that he had been encircled, and stood still.

“One person was standing, pointing with an projectile,” he states. “Unexpectedly he detected of my presence and I began to flee.”

He found himself encountering the Mashco Piro. For a long time, Tomas—dwelling in the tiny village of Nueva Oceania—served as almost a neighbor to these nomadic tribe, who shun interaction with outsiders.

A recent report issued by a human rights group claims remain at least 196 described as “remote communities” left in the world. The Mashco Piro is believed to be the most numerous. It claims 50% of these groups might be decimated over the coming ten years if governments fail to take additional measures to safeguard them.

It claims the greatest risks are from deforestation, extraction or exploration for petroleum. Isolated tribes are highly vulnerable to basic illness—as such, the study states a risk is caused by contact with religious missionaries and online personalities seeking engagement.

Recently, the Mashco Piro have been appearing to Nueva Oceania more and more, as reported by locals.

The village is a fishing community of several clans, located atop on the banks of the local river in the heart of the of Peru jungle, a ten-hour journey from the closest settlement by canoe.

The area is not designated as a protected zone for uncontacted groups, and deforestation operations work here.

Tomas says that, on occasion, the noise of industrial tools can be detected day and night, and the Mashco Piro people are seeing their woodland damaged and devastated.

Within the village, inhabitants report they are torn. They fear the tribal weapons but they also have strong respect for their “brothers” dwelling in the woodland and desire to defend them.

“Let them live as they live, we must not modify their culture. That's why we preserve our distance,” explains Tomas.

The people in Nueva Oceania are concerned about the damage to the community's way of life, the danger of violence and the possibility that deforestation crews might expose the Mashco Piro to illnesses they have no resistance to.

At the time in the village, the tribe made their presence felt again. Letitia, a resident with a young child, was in the woodland picking produce when she detected them.

“We heard calls, cries from individuals, many of them. As though there were a whole group shouting,” she told us.

It was the first time she had encountered the Mashco Piro and she ran. An hour later, her mind was still pounding from fear.

“Since there are timber workers and operations destroying the forest they are fleeing, possibly because of dread and they arrive close to us,” she said. “We don't know how they will behave towards us. This is what scares me.”

In 2022, two individuals were assaulted by the tribe while catching fish. A single person was hit by an projectile to the gut. He survived, but the other person was discovered lifeless subsequently with nine arrow wounds in his body.

The Peruvian government follows a approach of non-contact with secluded communities, rendering it forbidden to commence encounters with them.

The strategy was first adopted in the neighboring country after decades of campaigning by indigenous rights groups, who observed that initial exposure with isolated people resulted to entire groups being eliminated by illness, poverty and malnutrition.

During the 1980s, when the Nahau tribe in the country made initial contact with the broader society, 50% of their population succumbed within a matter of years. In the 1990s, the Muruhanua people suffered the identical outcome.

“Secluded communities are highly at risk—in terms of health, any exposure might transmit sicknesses, and even the most common illnesses could decimate them,” states a representative from a local advocacy organization. “From a societal perspective, any contact or disruption could be very harmful to their life and survival as a society.”

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